‘Those who can sit in the lotus position, please do so. Those who cannot may cross their legs in the normal way. Now fix your gaze and mind on the bindu. When my disciples and I start chanting “aum”, close your eyes and join in the chanting. All the ancient philosophies of the world have seen blindness as opening the door to another kind of sight. The one who cannot see the material world begins to see that which is without substance and without form. I will tell you a short story in this regard. Our guru-brother Prasadanand went suddenly blind in one eye. He did not weep over the loss. He accepted it with joy. Only those who accept their blindness rise to the higher level of sight. My guru-brother did not need anybody to tell him this. He said to his disciples, “I see with one eye what everybody sees. But with the other I see what is hidden from others, what does not exist in the outside world.”

‘To close your eyes is to accept temporary blindness, to cut the visible world out of your sight in order to begin the inward journey to find your soul. If you are successful in reaching your goal, you will see the visible world itself in a different way when you return to it. You will find you have shed all the anxieties attached to it. You will be surrounded by a space of extreme serenity created from within yourself. You will experience in yourself the existence of an infinitesimal part of divine power. It is time now to sit in the lotus posture and concentrate on the bindu.’

Prakash is awed by the swami’s sermon. As he crosses his legs for the lotus position, he glances surreptitiously at his neighbours. Many are finding the lotus posture difficult to assume. The youngsters, and even some of the grown-ups, giggle at their failed efforts, while others wear masks of gravity.

Prakash fixes his eyes on the bindu. After a while his unblinking eyes begin to burn and water. The swami has said nothing about whether blinking or wiping your eyes is permissible. Prakash shifts his gaze momentarily from the bindu to check what the others are doing. The woman next to him has closed her eyes and is swaying. The man beside her is blinking rapidly. Prakash steals a look at the swami. He is busy instructing one of his disciples and pays no heed to these two. He pays no heed to anybody. Perhaps his inner eye can see all. He is hardly like Gunde teacher at the Shingne primary school whose eagle eyes were always open to catch pranksters who would then be beaten up. Here is a guru of all forms of knowledge—inner and outer.